Taylor Corp., parent company of Counselor Top 40 distributor Taylor Promo Marketing (asi/333647), Counselor Top 40 supplier ADG Promo Products (asi/97270) and other print-and-promo firms, announced it has acquired print-on-demand (POD) fulfillment company Gooten. The acquisition was revealed on a recent episode of the Print-on-Demand Playbook podcast, a POD-focused series hosted by Rusty Pepper, head of global markets and partnerships at Taylor OnDemand, and Maddy Alcala, president of Gooten

“We’re very focused on continuing to be acquirer in an industry where you’re either an acquirer or an acquiree,” Nate Mullikin, president of Taylor Corporation’s business identity division, said on the episode regarding the acquisition. “But we’re also looking at how we can enhance our overall portfolio in a variety of ways: new products, technologies, front end or back end, that really take care of our customers and our market in a very different way.”

Mullikin and Alcala said the companies had an existing business relationship, with Gooten acting as a fulfillment partner for Taylor.

Mullikin also acknowledged that Gooten’s OrderMesh e-commerce order management system, which the company launched last year, was a key reason behind the acquisition, offering “a significant boon for growth.”

“As a 50-year organization, our onboarding process was a bit antiquated,” Mullikin added, “OrderMesh solves a lot of problems for us and obviously solved a lot of problems for our customers as well.”

In a separate video announcement, Alcala acknowledged recent delays in order shipments and difficulties for customers contacting Gooten personnel. Following the acquisition, she said, “We’re resuming to operational stability and you should expect to see orders shipping on time, the normal course of products and catalog SKUs available and being able to contact the Gooten people that you’re used to getting a hold of.”

Financial terms of the deal were not released.

Over the last 50 years, Taylor Corp. has completed roughly 200 acquisitions. Its promo arm, Taylor Promo Marketing, ranked 13th on Counselor’s list of Top 40 distributors, while ADG ranked 24th on Counselor’s Top 40 suppliers list.

“Our top goal for 2025 is to utilize emerging technologies and connect in new and deeper ways to improve our customer experience,” Taylor Corp. Business Unit President Rick Roddis told ASI Media earlier this year.

Capitalizing on the Print-on-Demand Phenomenon

POD has gained significant traction over the last couple years. Businesses small and large are looking to POD to stay nimble, especially amid tariff uncertainty, Alcala said on a recent episode of ASI’s and PRINTING United Alliance’s Branding Together podcast.

Taylor Corp. jumped into POD in 2021 with the introduction of Taylor OnDemand, the company’s POD fulfillment arm. As of August, Taylor OnDemand’s network has more than 8,000 product SKUs, with hot items including large-format signage, personalized packaging, shipper tape, wrapping paper and even custom napkins. “We’ve got clients that are literally buying hundreds of thousands of branded napkins every month,” Pepper told ASI Media in August.

The acquisition of Gooten reflects Taylor Corporation’s continued investment in POD. But Mullikin said it’s also a testament to the people at Gooten.

“The bones of this business are terrific,” he said. “And the team that we get a chance to work through is top-notch. That is really what solidified this deal … is the people, the technology and the opportunity here in this print-on-demand space for us.”